Oktatabyebye

A natural art gallery and an archaeological treasure, a study of the cave paintings has revealed a superimposition of paintings suggesting that the same canvas was used by different people at different times. Based on these, archaeologists have classified these drawings and paintings under seven different periods.

The first period represented by the Upper Paleolithic era depicts paintings with linear representations of red and white and concentrates more on animals like Bison, Tiger and Rhinoceros in addition to stick like human figures.  The Second period or the Mesolithic characterised by the hunter gatherer stage has paintings of both human and animals. It largely depicts hunting scenes and the types of weapons that were used. Pictures of hunters armed with bows, spears, and arrows barbed and tipped with microliths adore the walls. The social lives of the people as are also depicted in the music and dance scenes.

The Third period or Chalcolithic shows men leading a settled life viz., moving from the hunting and gathering stage to the agricultural and farming stages. In this stage, the paintings and drawings on the walls are similar to those found in the pottery of the period viz., geometric patterns in red and white colors.

The Early History era comprising of the Fourth and Fifth period marks the beginning of an ornamental and decorative style. Here, we see a profusion use of red, white and yellow colors in scenes that are mostly of riders, religious symbols, tree gods, tree spirits, yakshas and sky chariots. The Sixth and Seventh period or the Medieval age is the most recent stage where the paintings are more geometric, linear and schematic. Paintings of Brahmanical gods like Ganesh and Natraja make their first appearance in these rock shelters. However, the intricacy of the previous eras are missing and the paintings are a bit crude in their artistic style, suggesting that by this period Bhimbetka had passed the zenith of its artistic excellence. During this stage, the drawings are mostly painted in green with traces of pale yellow, dark purple, and red.

Generally, most of the colors used in the paintings are a mélange of the red and white with a tinge of green and yellow. These colors were prepared by combining manganese, hematite, soft red stone and wooden coal. Sometimes the fat of animals and extracts of leaves were also used in the mixture. Out of the 750 rock shelters, 500 of them have paintings of which only 15 are opened to the public. These historic rock shelters and rock paintings also have an important link with the Mahabharata, it is said that these caves gave shelter to the Pandavas and are named so after one of the brothers-Bhim and as regards the surrounding Lakhajuhar forest, it is said that it was here that the Pandavas built their palace of wax .

By Air: Bhopal, 40 km from Bhimbetka is the nearest airport.

By Rail: Bhopal, on the Delhi-Madras and Delhi-Mumbai mainline is the most convenient rail-head.

By Road: NH 69 connects Bhimbetka situated on the Bhopal-Hoshangabad National Highway to all the major and minor towns of the country.

Best time to visit Bhimbetka is between July to March.